5.3 | Equitable Grading Challenges

Talking about Grading Inequity 

Joe Feldman, author of Grading for Equity: What It is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classroom Links to an external site., and CEO of Crescendo Education Group Links to an external site. writes:  

Since the Industrial Revolution, teachers in the nation’s schools have assigned letter grades— the A to F scale—to describe student achievement. Grades are an essential currency of our schools. Schools, colleges, and employers use grades to determine many important, and in some cases, life-altering decisions—college admission, financial aid and scholarships, athletic eligibility, promotion, retention, awards, and supports.

But the grades that teachers assign to students—ostensibly an objective, fair, and accurate reflection of a student’s academic performance—are anything but. In the vast majority of schools around the country, educators are using practices that are outdated, inaccurate, and undermine student success. In fact, grading policies actually help fuel achievement gaps, reinforcing the differences in family resources and support based on students’ race and income.1 

Feldman's work was summarized in the National School Boards Association's article Accurate and Equitable Grading.2  Specifically, they noted that traditional grades and grading practices: 

  • Vary from teacher to teacher, resulting in student grades reflecting a teacher's specific grading practices as well as the student's achievement. 

  • Provide unclear and often misleading information to key stakeholders. Grades combine many diverse aspects of performance, making it very challenging to determine what the grade really represents. Many instructor grade books contain categories such as Classwork, Projects, Homework, Exam, and Participation, however it's important to carefully evaluate how much subjectivity is involved in one's grading policy and how much that practice evaluates learners based on compliance rather than mastery or demonstration of learning. Feldman writes "we know that teachers interpret student behaviors differently based on the student's race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Including these criteria makes a grade more reflective of how the teacher interprets a student's actions than what the student knows and can do." 3

  • Are often impacted by racial, class, and gender biases. Teachers who include a student's "effort" or "participation" in the grade are evaluating a student's behavior - not their learning. Grades are infused with subjective and culturally biased perceptions that frequently have negative impacts on African-American, Latino, low-income, and special education students. Further, students with more resources are more likely to complete homework and earn extra credit—both of which are often incorporated into grading. Students who have weaker education backgrounds and fewer supports are likely to be penalized even when they show growth and learning.

  • Are based on mathematically unsound calculations. An F earned early in a course and an A at the end of a course traditionally average as a C, regardless of the progress and final achievement. This model penalizes students for early struggles. Take for example a student who enters a course with very little experience developing a thesis statement versus one who has prior experience with this skill due to a summer camp opportunity. The lesser experienced student may earn a low score, or F early in the course. Because of this initial deficit, the student will inherently earn a lower grade than a student who earned an A on an initial assessment because of their prior experience with developing thesis statements. Thus, students with fewer resources will almost always earn a lower grade than students with more resources despite any measure of actual learning or growth. Says Feldman, "many times the grading practices teachers use inadvertently punish students with fewer resources." 3

Across most educational institutions, grades do not provide objective, fair, or accurate reflections of student academic performance. Many college educators do not actually go through formal training to become teachers, and even those who do are not properly prepared by their academic programs or professional development opportunities to provide meaningful and equitable grading practices. Feldman writes, "Grading is rarely included in pre-service, induction, or ongoing professional development - an ironic and embarrassing oversight, considering that grades drive all major decisions about our students, including promotion and graduation." 4  Not to mention the impact grades have on students' self-esteem, self-identity, and opportunities in life. 

So, how can instructors rethink their grading practices? What strategies exist? Navigate to the next page to learn more about equitable grading solutions.

Works Cited

  1. Feldman, J (2018). School Grading Policies are Failing Children: A Call to Action for Equitable Grading Links to an external site.. Crescendo Education Group. 
  2. "Accurate and Equitable Grading." National School Boards Association Links to an external site.. 3 February 2020. Accessed 7 January 2022.    
  3. Schwartz, K. "How Teachers Are Changing Grading Practices With An Eye on Equity." KQED Links to an external site.. 10 February 2019. Accessed 8 January 2022. 
  4. "How our grading supports inequity, and what we can do about it." SmartBrief Links to an external site.. 16 July 2015. Accessed 7 January 2022.  

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